US consumer spending picks up but Chinese goods flood in

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Free-spending consumers and companies boosting their inventories more aggressively than first thought meant that the US Government was yesterday able to revise up second-quarter GDP by 0.1 per cent to 1.7 per cent.

Personal consumption was revised up from an original estimate of 2 per cent growth to 2.2 per cent, the biggest quarterly leap in consumer spending in three years. This compared with a 2.1 per cent rise in purchases in the first quarter. Businesses built up their inventories, adding $68.8 billion (£44 billion) to their value, rather than $63.2 billion as first thought. Inventories grew by $44.1 billion